Bible in a Year

Last year, I used a site similar to this one for my daily Bible reading. My goal was to read through the Bible in one year, and I accomplished that goal!

I found it hard to make a habit. I wanted to do it first thing in the morning, but after I had my coffee so I would be a more active reader, and perhaps remember what I had read, rather than just go through the motions! So I made a quick folder of bookmarks that encompassed everything I like to do online each day. The list included my email, Google Reader, some blogs that I can't read through Google Reader, and a freebie site I like to check daily. I put the Bible reading link at the top and my rule was that I could not move on to the rest of the links until I had my Bible reading finished. This really worked for me.

For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Old Gift Bags

I always to save and reuse the pretty gift bags from Christmas, birthdays, and other holidays. Sometimes the bags become a little wrinkled and banged up from use, and they are not really gift-worthy anymore. When that happens, there are other uses for them.

• The smaller ones make great lunch bags. Or use a larger one for a picnic lunch for the family.
• Tote bag for a crochet or knitting project to take along with you.
• Keep in the car as a semi-permanent trash bag.
• Lay a larger bag flat for slipping a covered dish inside to bring to a potluck. Slip the serving utensil inside the bag too.
• Organizer bag for a kids' toy with small pieces, such as a puzzle.
• Emergency diaper bag, just to hold a diaper, wipes, and a juice cup.
  
• Organizer for student "center" for kids. Keep scissors, staples, pencils, glue and markers all together in one place for daily use.
• Hang a bag over the hook of a coathanger to hold the scarf, hat and mittens to go with each coat.
• Keep one in the laundry room for mismatched socks while they wait for the next round of laundry to get done.

If you have any more uses, I'd love to read them in my comments section. For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Dishwasher Decision

My dishwasher, which I have only had for three years, has broken down once again. This time it is out of warranty, and I think the repair bill would be huge. (By the way, it is an LG and has been a lemon all the way. Bad job, LG.)

We can get a new dishwasher, but I would have to dip into my little savings fund where I have been saving for a new dining room table. I'm actually considering not replacing this dishwasher.

Hubby says it would not be hard to fix up a couple of storage drawers in place of the dishwasher, but in a way that it could be easily removed if we decided to stick a dishwasher back in that space. And in my small kitchen, the extra storage would be an asset.

We have two able-bodied kids that could help share the load of handwashing dishes. They are nine and seven. There is also a two-year-old who is no help, of course.

So give me any input on what we should do. I sure hate to put my table off for another year! I also don't want to be constantly behind on dishes.

Inline Comments

Having inline comments does one thing for you: it tells people to comment!

Blogger will now allow you to have inline comments. Inline comments are basically the little comment box that is open at the bottom of this post, if you are viewing it alone and not on a page with several of my latest posts. If you came here from Rocks in My Dryer, you should be able to see it. If not, just click the title of the post and it will take you to a page with just this post.

Having inline comments does one thing for you: it tells people to comment! It is just one less step they have to take when they are already landing on the individual post, and it works!

You can find out all about how to make your Blogger blog have inline comments at BlogU, on this post. She explains it all much better than I could. If you use Blogger, you might want to go ahead and bookmark BlogU, because she always has great tips but doesn't intimidate us non-techie bloggers. I also found out how to do the little pullquote up at the top of this post by reading her tutorial. For more great tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Get the fly, everytime!

Three years ago, I went to a conference. For part of the conference, I was seated at a table with a mild-mannered, middle-aged, male social worker and a couple of ladies. We were all strangers, trying to engage in polite conversation. Suddenly, the social worker stirred things up by swatting and killing a bothersome fly with his BARE HAND! We were astounded! He politely excused himself to go and wash his hands, and when he came back, we were full of questions. Did he have special training? Was he born with this ability? How could this be accomplished?

He quietly explained that he had heard that flies have to take-off backward, so when you swat them, you must aim behind them. Since he had learned this, he was able to almost always get them on the first try.

I am not brave enough to swat one with my bare hand, but now I do aim the flyswatter behind them. I have to say that I have rarely missed one by doing this. It is so much quicker to get them on the first try!

Freezer Alarm

Last year after I lost my freezer contents when the door was left slightly ajar, I purchased a freezer alarm. It saved us last night by letting us know that the door had been left open a small crack. Nothing had happened to the food, except for a tiny layer of condensation that had frozen over a few things on the top shelf.

There is a little sensor that attaches inside the freezer near the back. A little wire runs out and the alarm unit sticks to the outside of the freezer. This unit is preset so that when the temperature inside the freezer rises above 15 degrees, the alarm goes off. It is battery-operated, so it would work in a power-failure.

This type of alarm works best for a separate freezer unit. I don't think most freezers that are attached to a refrigerator get cold enough for it to work. It can be switched off during the times when you are defrosting.

Our freezer is in the garage, and we could easily hear the alarm inside the house. The wire is small, but it does leave a tiny gap in the seal of the freezer. We think it is worth the small loss of energy.

Wart Treatment

Dr. Scholl's Freeze Away works great for us! My 9-year-old daughter had a wart on her finger. We saw this at the store and decided to give it a try before going to the doctor. It was very easy to use, did not hurt much, (per her report, and she is a weenie about pain!) we only had to do it once, and in less than two weeks, the wart was gone! 'Nuff said.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Convenient Toddler Food

When my youngest got ready for table foods, it was tempting to get him the little jars of chunky toddler food. They didn't seem very cost effective, however, and the selection was pretty sparse, but the convenience would have come in handy many times, especially when traveling.

I discovered that he really liked the chunky canned soups they have at the store. They have so many different varieties with lots of veggies. There are some reduced-sodium varieties, to cut down on the salt.

Now that he wants to feed himself, I just drain off the broth, and the pieces are the perfect size for him to pick up. I keep these on hand for the times when the rest of us are eating something that he doesn't care for, or that I am not sure he can handle yet.

The other cool thing is that they taste great to the rest of us. There is very little waste, because someone is always willing to eat the leftovers.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Kids Packing Idea

My older kids are at my mom’s this week. While I was helping them pack, I was afraid that my daughter would run out of matching clothes, since her jeans will match anything, but she had other pants and skirts that needed a certain shirt to match them.

I had packed her swimming clothes and pool shoes in a ziplock bag all together, but I didn’t want to use all my ziplock bags just for packing. So I just used some plastic grocery bags. I didn’t tie them or close them, but I just folded them closed around each outfit. That way she could see what was inside, but it would be clear what things needed to be worn together so that she would come out even at the end of the week.

Old-Fashioned Fun For Girls

My 9-year-old daughter, Peanut, has been keeping busy cutting out and playing with paper dolls.

I was wondering if other girls really like paper dolls anymore, but now a couple of her friends are loving paper dolls too, so I will recommend these links for free printable paper dolls:

Betsy McCall dolls
Making Friends
Modest Dolls This is our favorite, because there are so many clothes.

You can have fun by Googling “printable paper dolls” and find your favorites.

We print the dolls on cardstock, and then the clothes on plain paper. Many of these printables do not have tabs printed on them, so you might need to draw them on before your child starts cutting.

My grandma wrote us a story about playing with her paper dolls in 1910. It must run in the family:

“My first memories are when I was four or around that age. Gertie and I found a lot to play with. We used our imagination in those days. We could make dolls from corn cobs and even sticks. We had stick people, glass people (from broken dishes) and an out-of-date Sears or Ward’s catalog was special. We had families and they went to church. We made towns from flat rocks, the rocks were their houses. We marked rooms. Christmas was the only time we’d see toys in the stores. I remember how thrilled we were to get to go see the toys.”

The catalogs were for cutting out pictures for their paper dolls. I also remember Grandma telling me that when there were no catalogs, they just cut dolls out of whatever paper they could find. My daughter loved hearing about this. She wants me to save some catalogs for her, so that she can try the old-fashioned kind of paper dolls.

*Note: There are books of paperdolls that have punch-out clothes. This might be a good option for younger kids. My daughter is 9, so she has the scissor thing under control. They also make magnetic paperdolls now!

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Date Night Ideas

Every so often, for a special occasion, hubby and I like to go to a local university that has what they call Jazz Lab. It is a tiny little venue where you can go and listen to local artists and eat pizza. For a small cover charge, and the price of a pizza and drinks, we get a full night of entertainment. The bands are very good, professional groups. The atmosphere is very nice, and it is smoke-free! The downside is that, although the volume varies, you don’t get much conversation once the band starts. We usually arrive about an hour before the first set, so we have time to eat our meal and chat first.

So that’s a special night out. For an extremely cheap date, we love to go to the local bookstore and hang out. It is a smaller chain store, and they actually serve free coffee!

This summer, we are planning to take in a couple of free concerts at a nearby park. During the summer, there are often plays, music festivals, and various events that are excellent creative dates.

We are fortunate to have hubby’s cousin living close to us. She is 25, and a wonderful, trusted babysitter. Sometimes we do barter with her for her services. My husband helps her with car repairs, and she repays us with an evening or two of babysitting. In return for the next night out, I am going to help her decorate a cake for her best friend.

I would love to hear any ideas for creative and frugal date nights. Does anyone else barter for babysitting?

For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Purse Tissues

I got this great idea about three years ago, but I think some importer stole it. I don’t know any importers, so I’m not sure when or how that happened. *grin*

My idea was this: Instead of carrying around a package of tissues in my purse, I use pretty little napkins instead. They are not as super-soft as a regular tissue, but I'm willing to compromise because they are so much sturdier.


The little napkins are the cocktail napkin size. You can use birthday napkins, colored napkins, or pretty ones like they sell at Hallmark stores and such. They do not have to be expensive. I found mine at Ross. I think they were being clearanced because they no longer had the matching accessories or something like that. This little package was $1.69 for 20 napkins. Look how cute they are! They remind me of an old-fashioned hanky, but they do not need to be washed or ironed.



You can fold them once and put in your purse. It helps if you have a little pocket. Or you can fold them and put them in a little handmade case like this.



(To make the little case, I followed the instructions that start here.)

Now you can get little packages of decorated tissues at various stores, although they are hard to find around here. My idea could possibly be cheaper, depending in how you shop, and currently the selection of napkins is much broader than the selection of tissues.

Go here for more Works-For-Me tips!

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Eyebrow waxing

I used to carefully pluck out stray eyebrows with the tweezers, but I would always miss a few. It was very painful and it took a long time.

I am not a fan of over-the-counter waxing products, because I don’t think they work that well. I never could get them to pick up every hair. A few stray hairs would always be left over, which was the problem with tweezing in the first place.

The last thing I tried is a keeper! It is called Surgi-wax Brazilian Wax. I am sure I would never use the product for its intended purpose (*gasp*) but somehow I knew that it would be stronger than the waxes made for facial hair. It works very well. It is a very sticky, strong wax. It is microwavable wax that does not need cloth strips, you just leave a thick edge and pull on that when it has cooled.

This type of wax works very well for the area between the eyebrows. You have to be extremely careful while applying it, that you don’t get it on any hairs you want to keep. This is why I always apply with a toothpick. You can also use it on the outside edges of the brows, just be careful. It might help to use it only on the "unibrow" area a few times first, since it is easier to get it on the right spot.

If you have never waxed and are worried about pain, I will be honest and say that it does hurt, but I don’t think it hurts more than tweezing. With the wax, it is over with faster. Instead of, “pick, pick, pick” you just rip and you are done. Since the wax is so strong, it works the first time, you don’t have to try again. There is a desensitizing effect, so that the second time it hurts a little less, the third time it hurts less than that. I no longer have any pain waxing the area in between the eyebrows. The skin above and below the brow is a little more sensitive, but it has gotten better.

Surgi-wax works for me, because not everyone can be Brooke Shields! For more Works-For-Me Wednesday visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Works-for-Me Wednesday - Double Sheeting

This is my first Works-For-Me-Wednesday post. I have gotten a lot of great ideas, so this week I’m going to play too.

Double-sheeting my kids’ beds has made life a lot easier for me. It came in handy just this week as my son had a stomach bug. I have talked to some moms who don’t know how to do this, so here is how:

You will need the following to double-sheet the bed: Two waterproof mattress pads and two fitted sheets. Put a waterproof mattress pad over the mattress, and top with a fitted sheet. If you are not working on a crib, go ahead and add a flat sheet and a folded pillowcase. That way you have a complete set underneath.

Now top with the second mattress pad, and finish making the bed as usual.

Now, whenever you need to, you can quickly remove the fitted sheet and top mattress pad to reveal clean sheets! This has helped me on so many levels. When my babies were small, I sometimes found myself standing at the crib with a sleeping baby in my arms. I would look down and see a drool ring on the sheet (or a worse ring!) In that case, the crib sheet and pad could be taken off with one hand before putting the baby down. It worked so well that I kept it up when they got older. It worked during night-time potty training, but it has been most helpful when a child gets sick in the night. I won’t be graphic, but you know what kind of “sick” I mean. This is usually accompanied by crying and chills. By double-sheeting, you can quickly remove the mess, and the sick child can crawl back into a nice, clean bed.

Another bonus: We use Peanut’s bed for a guest bed when we have overnight company. Since I double-sheet her bed, there are always clean sheets ready for the guests, I just take hers off to wash and put the blankets and bedspread back on.

For more great ideas, go to Rocks In My Dryer.